Project: dress makeover

We all know I love to sew, but I generally steer clear of doing anything with clothing. In the past I tried to make wearable objects but even altering pre-existing things seems to be a giant hassle for me. However, I recently found an adorable dress at Target that I couldn’t say no to. The only problem was that it’s a tight dress and hugged my hips. I hate that.

So I bought two and attempted to fix it. The only way to conquer a fear is to face it. This is the story of how I didn’t waste $40 and made something I can WEAR!

First, using another dress as a model, I cut both dresses at the waist. My idea was to make the two skirts into one and then reattach it to a top.

Using that other dress, I measured the paneling on the skirt so I could make a pattern.

I only ended up using the triangle part, which measures 1/4 inch at the top and 13 at the bottom (17 inches tall / two pieces of paper taped together).

I traced and cut two triangles from the extra skirt:

I cut the non-triangled skirt up the middle and pinned the triangles in place.

Sewed it up:

And tucked the new skirt back up into the top piece and reattached it. I did have to add a couple of darts because the new skirt was wider than the other one.

But here it is! I paired it with a belt because the waist is a little bunchy in spots (from ripping out seams, adding darts, and then sewing over it again).

I somehow ended up adding a little more than an inch to the length in the process, which is awesome because I like my dresses to fall right above my knees. And it won’t ride up because it flows off my hips instead of sticking to them.

For as long as I’ve had my sewing machine there are still just so many things I want to try. And every time I do I find they are easier than I thought. I’m sure you could pick it up in no time and make the cutest things for Miss C :)